Pseudo-science

AURORA — It was a pleasure to read Jon Van`s article in The Tribune about pseudo-science and Masters and Johnson`s new book on AIDS. The article was timely and thoughtful.

All too often, even in The Tribune, articles on pseudo-sciences are presented with little or no balance or dissent, as if the accuracy of their claims was undisputed. In the rare instances of follow-up articles, they are buried where no one sees them.

As a member of both national (CSICOP-Committee for the Scientific Investigation of the Paranormal) and local (MCRI-Midwest Committee for Rational Inquiry) skeptics groups, as well as a scientist by profession, I am acutely aware of the popularity of pseudo-science in our culture. The teaching of science in our schools is already abysmally inadequate, and remains under continuous assault. Because many parents and teachers were themselves poorly educated in the basic principles of science and critical thinking, they are ill-prepared for the onslaught from frauds, greedy charlatans and religious fanatics.